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Thursday, July 14, 2011

In Part I of this Random, I strayed from Star Trek to talk about my country's Independence Day, but I promised a Star Trek tie-in, and here it is:

America in Star Trek

In Part II of this Random, we'll take a look at America as it appears and is referred to in original series Star Trek:

We'll start with the U.S.S. Enterprise:

The Enterprise "appeared" in Star Trek IV, as the ship from which the crew of the starship Enterprise drew power for their ship. I put "appeared" in quotation marks because the real Enterprise was at sea for the filming of the movie, and they had to use the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Ranger as a "stand-in." I guess even aircraft carriers have stunt doubles! (the photo above really is the Enterprise)

The U.S.S. Enterprise, CVN-65, was christened in September, 1960. It is the world's first, and fastest, nuclear powered aircraft carrier. As I am writing this, the Enterprise is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2013-2015. They'd better make sure nothing happens to the first officer, because we don't want the Captain stealing this ship and blowing it up!

The Enterprise is an impressive ship with an impressive history. These two sites are well worth taking a look at:

- The Enterprise's official web page. Under the "History" tab, click on "THE LEGEND" to read about this ship as well as the seven previous U.S. Navy ships to bear the name Enterprise

On to the rest...

The crew of the Enterprise visited the United States several times via time travel:

In Tomorrow Is Yesterday they accidentally visited the U.S. in 1969

In The City on the Edge of Forever Kirk, Spock, and McCoy traveled back to the U.S. in 1930

In Assignment: Earth the Enterprise travels back to the U.S. in 1968

In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home the crew of the Enterprise travels back to the U.S. in the late 1900s (the movie was released in 1986)

In Court Martial, Samuel Cogley makes reference to the U.S. Constitution as one of the documents from history that have secured people's rights

In The Squire of Gothos, Trelane reproduces the pistols used in the duel between former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton and U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr in 1804 (see a picture of the pistols from the episode, and compare to the real pistols used in the duel)

In A Piece of the Action, society on the planet Sigma Iotia II is patterned after a copy of the book Chicago Mobs of the Twenties, left by a starship from Earth

In The Omega Glory, the crew of the Enterprise encounters a collapsed society that was once almost identical to the U.S., even having the exact same flag, and a slurred and distorted version of the preamble to the U.S. Constitution, which Kirk corrects with a passionate recitation

In Spectre of the Gun, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, and Chekov are put into a partial re-creation of 1881 Tombstone, Arizona

In The Savage Curtain, Kirk and Spock meet an image of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the U.S.

These are all the appearances and references I know of to the U.S. as a country. There are, of course, many references to places in the U.S. (Kirk being from Iowa, for example), but it is never made clear if the U.S. still exists as an independent nation at these times. There are also very possibly references that I've missed. If you can think of any, comment below or on Zach Trek's Facebook page, and I'll add them to this post.

Keep an eye out for Zach Trek's next collectible, for which we'll do a little time travel of our own.